SAS, the Cary-based developer of analytics software, just dramatically expanded its offerings to the electricity sector, and analysts are giving the move positive feedback.

SAS has put out several tools for power monitoring, but people in the sector say the company’s new product is its biggest step yet.

Known as SAS Energy Forecasting, the new software uses real-time “big data” from power plants, utility customers’ digital meters and other sources to forecast short- and long-term power demand. The concurrent forecasting of short- and long-term demand distinguishes SAS’ product, according to the company.

“SAS is such a force in Big Data in other industries, it will pay utilities to see what they are up to,” says Jesse Berst, chief analyst at Smart Grid News.

“Big data” refers to automated efforts to find and analyze patterns in enormous quantities of data. SAS’s involvement with utilities has lagged that of companies that focus specifically on the power sector, Berst says.

Forecasting is especially important to utilities such as Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) because their costs can vary literally from minute to minute as they change the mix of power plants that they run. Nuclear plants tend to provide electricity most cheaply, followed by coal and natural gas plants. Relatively small gas-fired plants can respond most quickly to increased demand, but they’re also the most expensive, so utilities try to avoid firing them up if they can meet demand through cheaper sources.

“We developed SAS Energy Forecasting to go beyond what any forecaster has had access to before,” Alyssa Farrell, the company’s marketing manager for energy and utilities, said in introducing the software package at a conference in Amsterdam. “We include utility-specific forecasting models and a comprehensive forecasting toolset.”